Several months ago, we blogged about the auto-renewing text-message subscription scams being run by companies like National Telephone Advisory (NTA). SeeDec. 12, 2008 Blog, Dec. 3, 2008 Blog. Unsuspecting consumers have been trapped into taking seemingly harmless IQ quizzes, like the one that NTA operates on http://www.myiqquiz.com, only to have an automatically renewing $9.95 monthly charge billed to them by their cellular service carrier.

The past few years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of VoIP Companies throughout the United States. VoIP Companies essentially provide for the “delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks.”

Recently, those seeking to make a quick and sneaky buck from the unsuspecting consumer have found a fresh avenue for their scamming: text messaging. If you are one of the approximately 85% of Americans who own and use a cell phone, and one of the many cell phone users who practices the art of text messaging, you may have fallen prey to a text-messaging bill that you did not intend to incur.

Following the HughesNet Class Action lawsuit filed by the law firm of Pogust, Braslow & Millrood, LLC, which in part asserts claims by subscribers for unlawful early termination fees (ETF), another lawsuit against Sprint-Nextel has now been filed in federal court.

The law-firm of Pogust, Braslow, & Millrood, LLC, recently filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a lawsuit against HughesNet, Inc., Hughes Communications, Inc., and Hughes Network Systems, LLC, for breach of contract and frauduluent business practices involving the marketing of the HughesNet® Satellite Broadband Network System.

In an unprecedented decision, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently affirmed its authority to protect a “vibrant and open Internet” by ordering Comcast to cease selective and preferential interference over some of its online subscribers, namely those customers whom share online files via peer-to-peer applications (P2P).